Gloria Holmes
in a Android TV It is an integrated branch of Android that basically provides the option to use various compatible Android apps directly on your Smart TV. Sideloading is no longer a rocket science, but unfortunately, in most cases, apps installed this way won’t appear on the home screen. An alternative launcher can solve this problem very easily.
A few days ago, we showed you how Send Files to TV can be used to transfer any files and applications to Smart TV, so that in theory many well-known applications from smartphones or tablets can be installed on Smart TV. Each user must decide for himself how useful it is. In some cases, this is definitely very convenient and there is no reason why some apps are not normally available in the Google Play Store for TVs.
Unfortunately, sideloading has two small drawbacks: the app does not update via the Play Store, and due to the Play Store block and a missing icon, it is not displayed on the home screen of the Smart TV operating system. All installed applications must be started via sideloading via Settings and the list of all available applications. This isn’t a big deal and doesn’t really take long, but it’s still an unnecessary inflection that you might want to save yourself on TV.
With Sideload Launcher, you can save that turn, because you only need one extra step to launch apps. This is a very simple launcher based on Android TV that offers all the applications installed in the usual network and can be started by pressing the icon. Just as I am used to from launchers.
Since Sideload Launcher itself is available on the Play Store, it is displayed on the Android TV home screen and is therefore easily accessible. Basically, the launcher shows all the available apps so that you can also use it to launch all the other apps. It’s not really fancy, but it does the job and starts apps – that’s where you’re done. The installed apps are sorted alphabetically, but if you don’t install a lot of apps, you can still see the ZZZYYYXX app (no, it’s not there) without scrolling.
Just give it a try, the launcher is free and saves you some unnecessary intermediate steps to start the downloaded apps on TV. For more app-related options, such as uninstalling, you still have to switch to Settings.
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